Scholé Sisters: Camaraderie for Classical Homeschooling Mamas

Today’s show is our version of the which-came-first-the-chicken-or-the-egg dilemma. In this case, though, it’s which comes first – the principles or the practices. And how do we practice when we know that we don’t know all we NEED to know? We go around and around in circles, drawing on folks like James K.A. Smith, Cindy Rollins, Karen, Glass, and MORE. In the end, we made our peace with the issue, and we hope you can, too. Don't forget you can find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Scholé-Sisters-1443844352560693/

Welcome back! We are so excited to have you with us today for our first episode of Season 2! In this episode, Mystie and Brandy explore the relationship between personality types and scholé. Mystie draws a distinction Brandy had never thought about before -- that some types of scholé are restorative, while others bring about more of a stretching and growing -- and different types serve these purposes for different personality types. The bottom line is that if you are in need of some restoration, knowing your personality type and what restores it can be super helpful.   Don't forget to subscribe to our monthly newsletter over at scholesisters.com!

In today’s episode, Mystie and Brandy use Aristotle’s Nichomachean Ethics to discuss the connection between habits and virtue, and then proceed to convince ourselves to work on shoring up good habits over the summer to pave the way for a better school year. We also discuss a question on assessment sent to us by Amanda Venema – and a big shout out to Amanda for being the first to leave us a recorded message! So…habits, virtue, summer, assessment – what’s not to like? This is a fun way to wrap up Season 1 of the podcast. Don't forget to go join our new forum at scholesisters.com/join

In today’s episode, Brandy discusses virtual Scholé Sisters groups and technology tools with Amber Vanderpol. What happens when you live in an isolated place? Are you doomed to loneliness? Or are virtual groups a possibility? And, if so, how are they best organized? What technology exists to support them? And how hard is it to learn to use these unfamiliar tools? We talk about all this and more on today’s episode. Also: we've got a major announcement coming up in the next Scholé Sisters newsletter so if you haven't already subscribed, head on over to scholesisters.com to sign up!

In today’s episode, Pam and Brandy have a great conversation with Ravi Jain, co-author of The Liberal Arts Tradition, on the subject of balancing work with wonder. How do both of those fit together? What happens when our students seem to have lost the wonder? What if we seem to have lost the wonder? Ravi had some great thoughts on this. We also discussed piety in our Nitty Gritty Homeschool question – in The Liberal Arts Tradition, we’re told that piety is the foundation of learning. What are some practical ways to nurture and build it? We discuss all these questions and more in today’s episode! Check out our website scholesisters.com for tons of great articles on a variety of topics -- self-education, commonplacing, classical homeschooling, and more!

Today, Mystie and Brandy are daring you to be brave and read a classic, even if you don’t feel like you’re qualified. We tackle questions like why we feel intimidated by reading classic books, strategies for helping ourselves read them, and a whole lot more. In addition, our nitty gritty homeschool question is all about starting Latin, so you won’t want to miss it. As a reminder, all the show notes for this episode can be found at scholesisters.com/ss4 . Did you know? Scholé Sisters is on Facebook, so look us up!

Pam is not only Brandy's co-host, she's also the guest this time around. That’s because Brandy really wanted to hear more about her classical co-op and all the changes they have made over the years and how those have come about. Since Brandy doesn't have a co-op herself, what she really wanted to do was listen and learn -- and Pam was full of great lessons, that's for sure! Get ready to be inspired to continue to learn and grow and allow that process to bear fruit in other endeavors, such as co-ops. All the show notes for this episode can be found at scholesisters.com/ss3 .

Today’s episode is a conversation about the connection between love and learning. Is it important that our students love their subjects? Is it important that WE love the subjects we’re teaching? What do we do if we’re without love? We tackle all these questions and more – and in the process, we mention a lot of resources, so please remember you can find all of the necessary details in the show notes on our website at scholesisters.com/ss2.

February is often called Homeschool Mom Burnout Month, which is only sort of a joke. The main thing we’re discussing today is the idea that levity – that not taking ourselves too seriously – is a key to preventing that dreaded homeschool mom burnout. We make sure to refer to sources like GK Chesterton, Charlotte Mason, Catherine Levison, and Carole Joy Seid, just to name a few. It's a lot of food for thought, to be sure! Be sure to check out all the show notes at http://www.scholesisters.com/ss1/ !

An introductory episode, naturally, needs to cover all the basics. In this episode, we start by introducing ourselves. Then, we discuss the word scholé – how is it pronounced? What does it mean? After that, we discuss Scholé Sisters groups. Pam and Brandy have more formal groups, while Mystie has mastered the fine art of informal scholé with friends. We finish up by explaining the podcast itself – what it’s for, the format of the show, how it’s going to work, that sort of thing.